Patrick sans (day 4)

We have renamed Somerset grit county on account of how they appear to be gritting every single road, however deep in the sticks. True Grit and China
On our own today. First stop Stoke St Mary where there are 3 windows by Patrick - there would have been a fourth but the parishioners decided they'd prefer a new sink! Lovely path up to the church with cherry and apple blossom (Libby got carried away as usual) and one of the windows visible through the open door. We tried the new time lapse idea.

Detail of one of the windows (lovely abstract), the path and a window inside, blossom dearie

Having finished Stoke St Mary we then realised that we hadn't got much good film of the exterior of Patrick's house so returned there via Ilminster (Friday fish and chips for Charles) and filmed the happy hens who were determined to peck Libby's skirt and the cockerel who obviously relished the attention and crowed noisily. (Having seen the rushes since, I note that Charles rather OD'd on the hens - a mere 7 out of 10 clips!) Thence to a field for another time lapse. Since the weather was improving we decided to have another go at St George's and managed some exterior filming there and yet another time lapse by which stage the Nikon was complaining about being overworked - 'you expect me to take a shot of the same building every 5 seconds for 30 minutes - you cannot be serious'!

A bored Nikon camera in a field

Found our B&B for the night, wandered into town for a restaurant recce and discovered a wonderful looking 'real' fish-shop which may demand a visit tomorrow.
Thence back to St George's for the 150th Celebration of the church plus the Blessing of the Reyntiens window by the Bishop of Clifton. Fascinated by the diversity of the congregation, English, Polish, Indian and Filipino; the exuberance of the choir mistress; and 4 wonderfully costumed representatives of St George, the female versions looking like Scottish Widows. We stood in the balcony to film and record and when the Bishop (complete with flat pack Mitre) splashed the windows, his side kick whispered 'Saves on washing bills' and then before they descended the narrow spiral staircase offered to go first 'then if you fall, you'll have a soft landing'. Good to know there's a sense of humour about and the Bishop gave the camera a charming smile. Comparing the service with that in Cochem made me appreciate how avant-garde Father Muller is. Window looked lovely from the outside at night, lit from within.
Finished 8.45, quick dash back to B&B to leave equipment, then a waltz along the road to Eduardo's restaurant in a tiny listed building, a wonderful buzz about the place. obviously popular and deservedly so, the best food and value for money we've had all week.

Patrick day 3

This morning drove to St George's, Taunton, the largest stained glass project Patrick and John have completed jointly. Filmed the chaps with the window after which they left and Charles did details whilst I tried the exterior despite the rain. Chirpy window detail!
In the afternoon we green-screened Patrick on the subjects of Southwell, Anstey, Liverpool and Stoke St Mary - films to be highlighted in the DVD but without Patrick in attendance. We then moved into the wonderful stone flagged thatched cottage next door where Patrick used to live and tried an interview there in front of a wood burning stove - an ideal situation - but I think by this time we had actually worn out the ever ebullient man - and answers appeared sharply like punctuation marks so I called it a day.
Returned to the Lodge to take down the green screen and put the room to rights, thence to the studio to film more autonomous panels and studies together with some of Anne's paintings.
We finally packed about 6.30 - all four of us shattered and poor John having to drive back to London that evening. However all pleased with progress.
Patrick's energy is just astounding as is his imagination - artistically, written and verbal. His analogies and similes amaze me. Meanwhile John grows on us - he's just just an easy going, lovable, and fun guy with whom to work. We couldn't ask for more. Libby at Hugh F-W's with blackboard menu background
This evening - the big treat! We realised that one of our heroes, Hugh Fearney-Whittingstall has a canteen at nearby Axminster and discovered that Thursday night is stew-night - £10 per head. Right up our strasse, very basic decor etc, one is given a playing card for the stew and another for dessert, you wander up with your card and are presented with said food - Charles had the pork with spelt and gremolata whilst I had the root veg with same. Home made bread, divine butter, a wonderful glass of white to start with (Mayval from the Manstree vineyard), followed by an organic red with a colour like deep plum crushed velvet and a taste to match.

A happy Charles, glass of wine ind hand - Libby must have had a drop to many, having successfully decapitated the Boss

Tried to watch the political leader debate on Charles' tiddlytop computer (i-replay or whatever) but both kept falling asleep - however I get the feeling it wasn't spell-binding. Yawn.

Patrick day 2

Arrived at Patrick's 10am and interviewed him in the garden about his family history - main problem being that trainee helicopters circled continuously overhead - John busy on the phone to persuade them to stop, meanwhile the recurrence made a fitting break to each section of Patrick's life, preventing endless stories.
Charlie Higson arrived 11am so we then moved into Library mode - unfortunately Charlie too pleasant a chap to stop Patrick mid flow so we were treated to the latter's endless irrelevant classical references when it was all meant to be art related, but have since chewed it over and decided it might actually work if we change the ideology of the whole Library sequence.

Charlie Higson and Patrick in the Library

After lunch a new addition - a visit to Alice Temperley's glorious Palladian villa and a quick interview since she is an old family friend. Young, enthusiastic, bubbly, quite at ease with the camera - could work well.

The delightful Alice

Back to Patrick's house and filmed the man himself and John looking through sketchbooks, and then Patrick sketching something with his tea-bags, Indian ink and Somerset reeds - magical. Followed by a trip to the Monument - a source of inspiration, a restorative walk and, when Anne was ill, a contemplative landscape.

The monument and tree, and John doing the 'Hockney' boy pose!

The Gallery restaurant in Chard was open so we dined there, very good but portions far beyond our capabilities.

Patrick day 1

Breakfast at this B&B ends 8.30 so Charles had to exert a huge effort to make the deadline (meanwhile Libby had already had a run). Thence a drive to Patrick's abode but it transpires that his postcode on the headed notepaper is incorrect, so we encounter a few circles before ending up at the Lodge.
John, in trademark jolly flowered shirt, greeted us and amazed us with the preparation he'd done - clearing up the studios, cleaning autonomous panels, locating old photographs and magazines, archival stuff etc etc - fantastic! Meanwhile the aged retainer (aka Patrick) arrived with a welcome tray of biscuits and coffee (a charismatic pot with the lid clinging on to life by a safety pin).
Following a quick recce, I determined that the morning priority was to set up the Library for tomorrow's shoot, find the relevant books, Charles to organise lighting, moves etc.
A brief disappearance for luncheon - for one thing we are both loners and revel in escaping the social whatsit and being able to just sit and discommunicate, and for another it allowed me to check the revised postcode (which worked). Lunches this week provided by Sound Bites, that well known location catering company (a spin off from Hare in the Gate and Pomegranate). John paying homage to Dame Edna?
In the afternoon we filmed and photographed autonomous panels until Patrick re-appeared at which point we interviewed him with selected panels - he is the most amazing speaker, so imaginative. And he's so funny - he covers his television set with a cloth to keep it quiet - like putting a cover on a parrot's cage! Patrick's main room above mit safely covered television right, and on a bench outside the eggs laid by Patrick's 'happy hens'
Had a cuppatea round the kitchen table and then retired to our Chard B&B. Turned out the only restaurant open was the one we tested yesterday so we bought ourselves a picnic which was rather fun.

catchup/ketchup

Patrick wearing his T-shirt

The last 10 days have been exhausting for me but even more so for Charles. I concentrated on transcribing the interviews with Patrick, DeMarco and Andrew Dalton (Grocers' Company), putting together a tabulated bio of Patrick's life whilst enjoying myself in the evenings making Reyntiens inspired film crew T-shirts for Patrick and myself.

The autonomous panel the front of the T-shirt is based on, the back was inspired by the windows at Marden, Kent

Meanwhile poor Charles had to contend with Jobear for 3 days (Charlotte Bach project) followed by Eileen for 2 days (Big Draw project) whilst his Mac went walkabouts so little work was accomplished - pretty dire considering he has looming deadlines on both. Plus the dreaded VAT - so he didn't finish work until way into Monday morning apparently. Monday we shoved everything into the car, seemed fuller than ever, set off 2 hours later than predicted but arrived in Chard, Somerset about 6pm which wasn't bad going, and had a meal in a semi-decent Sechuan restaurant.

dashing about

Panel 4/16 titled It's Aga Gaga and on the right some Happy Fish, two of Patrick's latest offerings

Following Sherborne, drove up to Film Farm where we worked on the promo until about 9pm. The following day I caught the train to London and was interviewed by a Japanese film company about FB (odd being the other side of the camera and also odd that I'm appearing on Japanese TV, have appeared on Hong Kong TV but have never appeared on British TV?!) ). If you have access to Japanese TV (and who doesn't) the programme is to be aired 8 May and is titled Bi no Kyojintachi. Thence back to FF and more work on the promo, same again Saturday and Sunday plus charging of batteries and all that palaver. Monday drove down to Jay and Jeremy who kindly put us up for 2 nights and on to the Reyntiens benefit at the Glaziers Hall.

And what a super evening it was, a great buzz about the place. Lots of Patrick's new autonomous panels were on display and hopefully selling like hot cakes (or even glass panels), the wine flowed freely, Graham Jones did an excellent presentation - followed by what was of course the highlight of the evening - our promo. We'd had quite a lot of fun with it because it's a completely different beastie from a long documentary, a mere 10 minutes, has to hit people hard (hopefully without hurting them) and it seemed to go down very well - lots of laughter and folks said afterwards that we'd captured Patrick perfectly. Not sure anyone noticed my Clockwork Orange moment or some of the musical subtleties - but I was pretty chuffed by the response. After another selling and imbibing break Danny Lane (an ex student of Patrick's) gave another amusing presentation (I like the idea of old Morris Minor Traveller Estates being described as half timbered). And then Patrick performed live - painting a glass panel (see right).

Talked to lots of Patrick's friends and ex students and was struck by how supportive they all were and how much they 'loved' Patrick. They also mentioned his obvious joy in teaching, or rather not teaching in a didactic way, but imparting and sharing knowledge, and a cunning plan started gearing up in my little noddle.

And when it was all over Charles persuaded me into a pizza parlour - don't get me wrong, I do like pizzas, but I only have to look at one and the weight piles on! Anyway I discovered they made doughnut pizzas with less fattening centres, so I was almost happy.
The following day a change of plans since John was judging a competition, so we interviewed Ray King in John's studio (Ray being another American ex student of Patrick, a lovely man, very modest), followed by Patrick glass painting (and he included a phoenix about which I was delighted - symbolism of Coventry and Cochem etc etc) and then an interview with Richard DeMarco who apparently studied with Patrick at Edinburgh College of Art. He says there's to be a Reyntiens exhibition at the National Gallery in Edinburgh this coming autumn which would be absolutely fantastic but, having curated exhibitions myself and knowing how long in advance they are planned, am somewhat sceptical because no-one else appears to have heard about it.

Ray King above, and below Richard DeMarco and Terry

Punk Patrick Stark raving ... and the Sanderson window

Early evening we drove to the Sanderson Hotel (used to be Sanderson's showrooms) in central London and met up with Patrick again to film him talking abut the huge stained glass window he and Piper made/designed. He mentioned that Piper may have been inspired by fireworks so Charles did some filming in that manner which was rather fun - shooting up the panel and exploding out at the top. Patrick was in great form despite his busy schedule and larked about conforming to the bizarre Stark furniture.
Wednesday an interview with the Master of the Grocers Hall (the Grocers own Oundle and so are responsible for the beautiful and ground-breaking windows in the Chapel) and then back to FF to collapse!

Andrew Dalton, Master of the Grocers' Company, together with bust of Mr Sanderson, a former notable Headmaster at Oundle

Sherborne

A VERY long day - set off at 10am, returned at 11pm - same routine Lemsip and bed! One lecture early afternoon and another in the evening with a big gap in between - so I wandered along the High Street (and what a joy, another town with lots of independent shops and some super delis) and visited the Abbey which I thought just glorious. It was very quiet and had a lovely peaceful, friendly, contemplative feel about it - far preferable to Llandaff yesterday. Somehow the voice kept going!

here be dragons

On from leaping hares to the land of dragons, Welsh Wales.
I had expected Charles would be fighting fit and full of the joys after his Sicilian break but unfortunately he'd come down with the most awful and unusual cold which he reckoned someone on the plane handed him, so our progress on the promo was slower than anticipated whilst he struggled with Lemsips and cough medicine etc.
I then survived all the cooking over Easter - Aidan even invited two of his friends to stay Sunday evening - everyone was most enthusiastic about the food, but in a way I think it's not just the cooking but the ambiance which makes a memorable meal and when you've got a table of young, bright, energetic and humorous youngsters - well, it's going to be fun!
Unfortunately by the time I left Kent Charles' cold had taken hold and I was hacking and sneezing away. With the aid of a Strepsil held in my hamster cheek, I succeeded in delivering the lecture with only one coughing outburst. A wander down Narberth's High Street (it actually has independent shops, what a delight) and some purchases in the wonderful Spanish deli before driving to Llandaff to see the Cathedral and the Piper/Reyntiens windows and of course Epstein's Christ in Majesty - although I have to admit I wasn't overkeen on George Pace's parabolic concrete arch. Was delighted though to find a Silvester Sparrow window (he worked with Brangwyn) - unfortunately difficult to photograph. Didn't have time for Newport. On to Bristol area, some hot Lemsip and bed!